Friday, April 10, 2015

Three and Oh!

Watching the Royals go 3-0 to start the season isn't a crazy idea. Most teams, even bad ones, can string together three wins on occasion. What has been most satisfying about this opening week binge on wins is that they have come with so much competence.

By far, the worst performance has been Danny Duffy giving up five runs on Wednesday, but he also struck out a batter an inning and the big damage came on a home run that followed an infield hit.

The Royals have hit their fare share of long balls to start the season, with just about everybody you'd want to getting in on the act. I don't imagine they will keep this pace up for the season, but it's not unrealistic to think that they won't be dead last in homers again.

Finally, while Wednesday's game featured some struggles from the starter, it also featured the platonic ideal of bullpen usage, with the Herrera-Davis-Holland trio mowing down batters and making the last three innings a wash for Chicago.

This is the reason Dayton Moore was hesitant to trade one of his cyborg relievers for another offensive weapon in the offseason. Because whatever happens in the first six innings of a ball game, if it's close, then the Royals are sending in HDH. That means, they have three more innings to score and your offensive output is likely done for the day.